The Days of Bruce Vol 1 eBook

The brow of Sir Nigel rested on his hand, his attitude
was as one bowed and drooping ’neath despondency;
the light of the taper fell full upon his head, bringing
it out in beautiful profile. It was not his capture
alone which had made him thus, the boy felt and knew;
the complicated evils which attended his king and
country in his imprisonment were yet not sufficient
to crush that spirit to the earth. It was some
other anxiety, some yet nearer woe; there had been
many strange rumors afloat, both of Sir Nigel’s
bridal and the supposed fate of that bride, and the
boy, though he knew them false, aye, and that the victim
of Jean Roy was a young attendant of Agnes, who had
been collecting together the trinkets of her mistress,
to save them from the pillage which would attend the
conquest of the English, and had been thus mistaken
by the maniac—­the boy, we say, though he
knew this, had, instead of denying it, encouraged
the report, and therefore was at no loss to discover
his master’s woe. He advanced, knelt down,
and in a trembling, husky voice, addressed him.
“My lord—­Sir Nigel.”

“Tend me—­follow me! whither—­to
the scaffold? Seek some other master, my good
boy. I know thee not, and can serve thee little,
and need no earthly aid. An thou seekest noble
service, go follow Hereford; he is a generous and
knightly lord.”

“But I am Scotch, my lord, and would rather
follow thee to death than Hereford to victory.”

“Poor child, poor child!” repeated Nigel,
sadly. “I should know thee, methinks, an
thou wouldst follow me so faithfully, and yet I do
not. What claim have I upon thy love?”

“Dost thou not know me, Nigel?”
The boy spoke in his own peculiarly sweet and most
thrilling voice, and raising his head, fixed his full
glance upon the knight.

A wild cry burst from Nigel’s lips, he sprang
up, gazed once again, and in another moment the page
and knight had sprung into each other’s arms;
the arms of the former were twined round the warrior’s
neck, and Sir Nigel had bent down his lordly head;
burning tears and impassioned kisses were mingled
on the soft cheek that leaned against his breast.